


The View From Here is Getting Better With You By My Side

by feelssogoodinmyarms



Category: Frühlings Erwachen | Spring Awakening - Frank Wedekind, Spring Awakening - Sheik/Sater
Genre: DWSA - Freeform, F/M, Incestual Relationships, Running Away, Suicide Attempt, its canon, martha has lesbian aunts and she runs away to live with them, marthiz is such a cute ship and it needs more works, parental abuse mentions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-26
Updated: 2018-12-26
Packaged: 2019-09-28 03:34:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17175068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/feelssogoodinmyarms/pseuds/feelssogoodinmyarms
Summary: She was five when she first met him. They were in the same kindergarten class and he was the only other deaf kid. She saw him by himself at lunch, so she cautiously approached him.“Hi,” she waved to him nervously. He didn’t respond, only stared back at her with wide eyes.“Are you by yourself?” she asked, hoping he could understand her.“Yes” he finally responded with a nod.“Can I sit with you?” she asked.“Ok” she breathed a sigh of relief and sat next to him.“I’m M-A-R-T-H-A, Martha” she signed.“M-O-R-I-T-Z, Moritz”





	The View From Here is Getting Better With You By My Side

**Author's Note:**

> hey yall im having writers block so i thought i'd post this bc marthiz is A1 and needs more works. this was a request by my #1 side ho @coldburn on tumblr and shut_up_melchior on here (idk how to do the links im sorry). enjoy this and maybe i'll find the inspiration to finish son of a preacher man. Also i stole the title from check yes juliet by we the kings bc it's a banger my second grade self knows.

She was five when she first met him. They were in the same kindergarten class and he was the only other deaf kid. She saw him by himself at lunch, so she cautiously approached him.

“Hi,” she waved to him nervously. He didn’t respond, only stared back at her with wide eyes.

“Are you by yourself?” she asked, hoping he could understand her.

“Yes,” he finally responded with a nod.

“Can I sit with you?” she asked.

“Ok” she breathed a sigh of relief and sat next to him.

“I’m M-A-R-T-H-A, Martha,” she signed.

“M-O-R-I-T-Z, Moritz.”

Moritz. Martha was already enamored with him and decided it was time to pop the question.

“Do you want to be best friends?” Moritz’s eyes lit up. He’d never had a best friend before, this was so exciting.

“Yes!”

They played together that day at recess, and every day after that. They would push each other on the swings and play hopscotch, or just sit inside and have tea parties.

 

That continued until first grade, when Melchior Gabor transferred to their school. His mama was deaf so he knew how to sign and he and Moritz immediately became best friends. Martha was sad for a while, but then she met a new girl named Wendla who was also deaf. Wendla was very sweet, just like Moritz, and she was very good at cat’s cradle. Martha was glad she would still have someone to have tea parties with.

* * *

In sixth grade, Martha was assigned to do a science project with Moritz. She knew he’d probably forgotten about kindergarten and what good friends they were, but she was glad she’d have an excuse to talk to him again.

 

“What’s that?” Moritz asked while she was looking up the phases of the moon. He was pointing to the bruise on her arm. She quickly pulled her sleeve down and shook her head.

“It’s nothing, I just hit it on a table yesterday.” She knew she wasn’t supposed to talk about what went on in her house, as terrible as it was. Luckily, he left the subject alone after that. The next day, she noticed a bruise on his shoulder, by his neck.

“How’d that happen?” she asked. Was his Papa beating him too?

“It’s, um,” he struggled for a minute, before hastily signing, “Nothing. It’s fine”. Martha hoped his papa didn’t do to him what Martha’s papa did to her. He couldn’t, Moritz wasn’t the same down there as she was. Still, she prayed that night that he wasn’t being beaten. Moritz was the sweetest, handsomest, most wonderful boy she knew. He was the last person that deserved to be treated so horribly.

Martha and Moritz got an A on their project, and he was so happy to get a good grade for once that he kissed her cheek. He flushed and ran away as soon as he did, but Martha found herself gingerly touching the spot he had kissed for days after.

* * *

In tenth grade, Martha told her girlfriends about her crush on Moritz Stiefel. She didn’t understand how they all found Melchior so much better. Melchior wasn’t sweet or sensitive like Moritz. Moritz was kind and safe and secure. Melchior was like fire, angry and unpredictable. She already had enough of that at home.

 

Moritz had grown taller and handsomer as they had gone through high school. Although they never talked except for smiles in the hallways, Martha felt things for him that no one else made her feel. She liked to imagine him coming to her window in the middle of the night and taking her far, far away from here, to a little cottage somewhere where they would be happy and safe. Being loved by Moritz Stiefel seemed nearly impossible, but still she hoped.

 

A few weeks later, Martha finally told her friends the truth about what happened at home. She couldn’t blame the girls for how they reacted. Anna insisted that Martha stayed at her house, but Martha didn’t want to be anyone’s charity case. She was fine the way she was, there was no need for her friends to baby her. Still, she wished it was different. She thought about running away like Ilse did. But would that be any better than home? Fending for herself at the hands of people possibly worse than her father?

 

After she told her friends, it seemed to be one thing after another. Wendla asked Melchior to beat her like Martha’s father did to her, then Wendla called Martha crying and hung up. She never spoke about it again. The final straw was when Moritz tried to end his life.

 

“Moritz has been absent all week,” Martha remarked, as casually as she could at lunch one day. Her friends’ looks suddenly darkened.

“You haven’t heard? Moritz is in the hospital. He tried to kill himself.” Anna signed the last part hesitantly, as though mentioning it may strike her down as well. Martha suddenly felt sick to her stomach and dizzy.

“I can’t believe how selfish he was. Who would do that to their parents? And Melchior?” Thea signed. Martha wanted to rip her throat out. How could Thea be so insensitive? More importantly, how could she think about Melchior right now?

 

The bell rang and the girls hurried off to class. Anna stayed behind to hug Martha sympathetically before leaving. Martha didn’t go to class. She knew exactly what she had to do and she needed to do it now.

 

Martha walked home and grabbed her bike and rode to the hospital as fast as her legs would go. She locked it up, her hands shaking, before running inside.

“I need to see Moritz Stiefel,” she croaked out. Martha hated how her voice sounded, even when she had her hearing aids in, but it didn’t matter right now.

“I’m sorry, he’s not taking visitors right now,” the clerk responded, a fake sweetness in her tone.

“You don’t understand, I’m a friend of his and I need to see him,” Martha begged. She needed to know the boy who mattered most to her was okay.

“I’m sorry sweetie, I can’t let you do that. I assure you he’ll be okay, I’ll let him know you stopped by.”

Martha felt anger surge inside of her and ran out, tears threatening to spill from her eyes. She cried and cried as she rode home, her heart drumming in her ears. What the hell would she do now?

 

It wasn’t until that evening, still weeping on her bedroom floor, that Martha had the courage to do what she needed to. She heard her father slam the front door shut, the school probably told him she had skipped the last half of the day. Her wrists still hurt so bad from where he held her hands last night as he forced himself inside her. Martha couldn’t do it again, it needed to stop. Her throat was tight and her heart pounded away as she threw what little she wanted to keep into a knapsack. She grabbed the letter she wrote earlier that day before slipping out her window.

 

Martha ran and ran until she was out of breath, and then she kept running. She bought a train ticket to Karlsburg, a town three hours away. The next train wouldn’t be here for another hour, so Martha wandered over to 7/11. Martha left ten minutes later, a slushie in her hand and some snacks shoved into her bag, and was sure she was hallucinating when she saw a girl she hadn’t heard from in over a year. Ilse Neumann was leaning against the wall, all in white, like some kind of phantom. A cigarette dangled from her deep red lips, and she looked so magical Martha thought for sure it was her imagination until Ilse’s eyes fluttered up to look at her.

“Martha?” Ilse signed in disbelief.

“Ilse?” Martha took a step toward her, still reeling.

“My God!” Ilse rushed to Martha’s arms, the first human contact that Martha had felt in ages that she had enjoyed.

“What are you doing here?” Martha couldn’t believe that the bubbly, kindred girl who had vanished years ago was really here.

“Couldn’t sleep. I like to listen to the trains when my head is cloudy. What about you? How have you been? Are you going somewhere?”

“Not the best. Are you still living with those artists?”

“Yes. They’re a wild bunch, always dressing me up and painting me. We get drunk and dance all night, and I’m a model! But it’s-” she stopped herself, and her face got more serious.

“It’s great. I’m great. Are you still living at home?” Ilse asked, trying to move the conversation away from her personal life.

“No. That’s where I’m going, actually. Today was the last straw, I should have left a long time ago.” Martha was ashamed to say that she had run away from her problems but Ilse only smiled.

“That’s wonderful, Martha. Where will you go?”

“My Aunts, Leonie and Antonia, live in Karlsburg. I don’t know if they’ll let me stay because I haven’t seen them in years; my parents don’t approve of them. But I’m hoping.” Martha tried not to consider the possibility of being turned away.

“Do you want to come with me? I’m sure my aunts wouldn’t mind, they’re very sweet and understanding.” Truthfully, Martha wasn’t entirely sure they would. But Ilse knew how to survive, she was sure they could survive if they were together.

“Thanks, but you know I couldn’t.”

Martha understood. Ilse Neumann could not be detained. Like the wind, she never stayed in one place. Too much had happened in her life for her to have rules or parents.

Ilse stayed with Martha until her train came. They talked about how life was when they were little, and how it had changed, and how they hoped it would be.

“Ilse, could you do something for me?” Martha asked, a few minutes before her train came.

“Anything.”

Martha pulled the letter out of her backpack. “Give this to Moritz when you see him next. I don’t know when or if I’ll ever see him again and I need him to know everything. He needs to know that, that I-” Martha started to cry and couldn’t continue. Ilse held her until the train arrived.

“You always have a home with me, Martha” Ilse told Martha as they waited for the train to pull out. Martha was sitting in the window, holding Ilse’s hand. She thought they looked like two lovers parting in an old movie. “If it doesn’t work out with your aunts, or if you ever find yourself with nowhere to stay, come find me. I’m never far from here” Martha didn’t try to stop the tears as she said goodbye.

“Thank you Ilse. Good luck.”

“And to you.”

 

Martha drifted in and out of sleep all night, and cried again when daylight came through the window as they pulled into Karlsburg. She was going to be ok, she would be safe now.

* * *

Martha didn’t see Moritz again until she was twenty. She was on a trip with her college friends to Berlin and she did a double take when he walked by her. They both stopped dead and stared at each other for what felt like hours before he signed,

“Martha?”

“Yes. It it really you Moritz?” she asked. This felt like something out of a dream.

“Yes! My God, you’ve gotten so beautiful.” As soon as he said it Moritz started blushing just like he did in sixth grade.

“And your hair, it’s,” He couldn’t find the words and only gestured to her dark locks that didn’t curl past her ears.

“I cut the braids off after I left,” Martha clarified, smiling at the memory.

“It looks great.”

“Thank you. You want to get coffee or something?” she offered. He smiled and Martha felt like she might faint; he was so cute.

“Sure!”

Martha gazed in wonder at Moritz as he told her how he ran away with Ilse the day he graduated. The two of them had been all over Europe and stayed with a millionaire in his mansion and poisoned him so he was sick all night before running off with one of his maids, who Ilse was in love with. They had stayed with an insane woman who had human remains in her fridge and gotten arrested at protests. It sounded amazing. Martha told him about how she stayed with her aunts and how they got her parents locked up for good, how she was going to school to be a business major and was the top of her class. She told him all about how she’d been to abuse groups and how good it felt to heal from it all and about the rock concerts her college friends took her to, how amazing the vibration and the sensory overload was.

He was walking her back to her hotel wen he brought up the letter she’d given him so many years ago.

“Do you remember the letter you wrote me? That Ilse gave me after you left?”

“Oh my God, yes!”

Martha felt her face heat up. Everything she said in that letter was still true, but what if Moritz didn’t feel the same?

“I read it every night,” he started. Martha smiled and was about to tell him how silly she sounded in it but he started signing quickly, like he did when he was nervous. “I never showed anyone but I kept it with me wherever Ilse and I went. It felt so wonderful to hear from you, I missed you so much." Moritz paled and looked as though he would run away but stood tall and squeezed his eyes shut. "I was always in love with you, Martha. From the day I met you in kindergarten. I know this is so stupid and you probably don’t still love me, but I needed to tell you. I thought I’d never see you again.” Moritz breathed a sigh of relief and opened his eyes. Martha stood there, speechless, trying to find something to tell him.

“Crap, I shouldn’t have said all that, I’m sorry.”

Martha still couldn’t find anything so she did what her whole body was itching to do. She rose up on her toes to connect their lips. He bent down and put his hand on her cheek. She felt an amazing warmth start at her head and move it’s way down through her body as she smiled into the kiss.

* * *

Martha was twenty-six when Moritz asked her to marry him. They were living in Munich where Martha had gone to college. They bought an apartment together after she graduated and lived right down the hall from Ilse and Patty, the servant of the wealthy man who had run away with them so many year sago. Martha knew it was going to happen because there was a note on the table at Ilse’s for Moritz that said the ring was ready to be picked up. Martha decided she’d play coy until later. The couple went to the restaurant Moritz and Martha went on their first date. Moritz barely touched his dinner because he was so nervous. He finally popped the question at the end of dinner and of course Martha said yes.

 

Martha was twenty-eight when they finally had enough money to get married. It was in the spring and Ilse and Patty were invited, along Martha’s aunts, and their friends from high school and college. It was beautiful, even though Moritz dropped the rings at one point. That night when they drove away, still in their wedding clothes, Moritz said he had a surprise for her. He took her to a little cottage in the woods he’d been preparing. It was secluded and just big enough for the two of them. Moritz said Martha could put her flowers in the boxes under the window and paint the rooms whatever color she wanted. Martha couldn't do anything except thank him through her happy tears.

 

That night, she watched Moritz sleeping peacefully, nose to nose. The moonlight danced on the bedsheets and she could hear the little brook skipping over the rocks. Martha couldn’t have been happier as she dozed off next to the man she had always loved.

**Author's Note:**

> [spring awakening tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/feelssogoodinmyarms) | [main tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/devious-stare)


End file.
